{"id":758,"date":"2023-06-19T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/?p=758"},"modified":"2024-03-04T10:55:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T10:55:08","slug":"the-greek-migrant-shipwreck-is-another-preventable-tragedy-at-the-borders-of-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/the-greek-migrant-shipwreck-is-another-preventable-tragedy-at-the-borders-of-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greek migrant shipwreck is another preventable tragedy at the borders of\u00a0Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

*reposted from The Conversation
<\/a><\/strong>
The Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy has been described as the \u201cworld\u2019s most dangerous maritime crossing<\/a>\u201d. This was proven once again last week in the tragic shipwreck<\/a> of a boat full of men, women and children, around 50 miles away from the southern Greek town of Pylos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boat was being tracked by the Hellenic coastguard who said that those on board refused their assistance<\/a> repeatedly, and that people on board said they wanted to continue to Italy. It was for this reason that no active rescue took place, according to the coastguard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But activist groups, including Alarm Phone<\/a>, an emergency hotline for refugees in distress in the Mediterranean, have contested this account. In an email to authorities, published by investigative journalists We Are Solomon<\/a>, Alarm Phone alerted authorities to the vessel\u2019s location, and reported that \u201cseveral people, among them some babies, are very sick. The people on the boat said that they cannot go on\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixed reports and timelines<\/a> have continued to come out, and survivors\u2019 stories and experiences<\/a> are now starting to be reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not about breaking news. Not about unfounded opinions.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Get our newsletter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alarm Phone claimed<\/a> that Maltese and Italian authorities were also aware of the vessel\u2019s situation, and that \u201cEuropean authorities could have sent out adequate rescue resources without delay. They failed to do so because their desire to prevent arrivals was stronger than the need to rescue hundreds of lives\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International lawyers and former members of the Hellenic coastguard<\/a> have said that authorities should have rescued the boat<\/a> regardless of whether passengers requested help, not least because of the vessel\u2019s unseaworthy nature and overcrowding. As the RNLI has made clear in the UK, it is a duty \u2013 both moral and under international maritime law \u2013 to save lives at sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: Turning back migrant boats: what does the international law of the sea say?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Pushbacks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is far from the first time the Hellenic coastguard has faced accusations of endangering asylum seekers\u2019 lives at sea. In March 2020, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, thanked Greece for acting as the European Union\u2019s \u201cshield\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pledged to work in solidarity with the country to ensure that as a priority \u201corder is maintained<\/a>\u201d at Greece\u2019s external border, also the external border of the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this means in practice has become clear with accusations and mounting evidence that the Hellenic coastguard is conducting illegal pushbacks<\/a>, preventing access to the right to claim asylum once a person has entered a state\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights advocates, MEPs<\/a> and other non-governmental organisations<\/a> have repeatedly accused both the Hellenic coastguard and Frontex (the European border and coastguard agency) of involvement in pushbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2022, a report by the EU watchdog Olaf<\/a> published by German media<\/a> accused Frontex of covering up or failing to investigate serious allegations of human rights violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video published by the New York Times<\/a> in May 2023 appeared to show coastguard vessels abandoning people at sea that had previously landed in Greece. Again, this would be a violation of their rights under international law to claim asylum, having landed on the island of Lesbos, in Greek territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Hellenic coastguard\u2019s account of the recent shipwreck is true, and that those on board the vessel wanted to continue to Italy and avoid Greek territory, it\u2019s important to consider why this would be the case. One reason may very well be the growing awareness of the risk of pushbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These events suggest that Europe\u2019s \u201cshield\u201d is not prioritising saving the lives of those seeking safety, but rather, as von der Leyen stated in that same press conference in 2020, making sure \u201corder is maintained\u201d when \u201cmigrants that have been lured through false promises into this desperate situation\u201d find themselves at Europe\u2019s door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ursula
Ursula von der Leyen has praised Greece for being \u2018Europe\u2019s shield\u2019. Dimitris Tosidis\/EPA-EFE<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deterrence policies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Donald Tusk<\/a>, then president of the European Council, warned people making the dangerous crossings to the EU. He said: \u201cDo not come to Europe. Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statements like this wrongly suggest that people make these journeys out of choice, that a far easier alternative exists. But, as Somali British poet Warsan Shire put it poignantly<\/a>: \u201cYou have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making these journeys less safe will not prevent them from happening. The failure to rescue, the decision to pushback, only puts the lives of people in boats at risk, it does not prevent other people from making those journeys in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shipwrecks like this are preventable, but only if EU policy moves away from its focus on closing borders and \u201cmaintaining order\u201d, and towards one of humanitarian action. This would mean the opening of genuinely safe routes<\/a> for people seeking safety, that do not rely on them entering the territory of a state on a crowded, dangerous vessel to be able to make an asylum claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*reposted from The ConversationThe Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy has been described as the \u201cworld\u2019s most dangerous maritime crossing\u201d. This was proven once again last week in the tragic shipwreck of a boat full of men, women and children, around 50 miles away from the southern Greek town of Pylos. The boat was being tracked by the Hellenic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations","category-news-articles-el","tag-english"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/The-Conversation.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/captainsupport.net\/freepylos9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}